Diarrhea in Babies and Toddlers

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Any parent of a young child would be aware of how difficult it can be to clean up after a kid who is suffering from diarrhea. However, as well as being messy, diarrhea can interrupt potty training as well as other activities that your child might engage in, like attending preschool.

In order to know how to prevent and treat diarrhea, you need to understand some of the causes of this condition it's easy to look at your child's diet, as the primary cause of the diarrhea, but diarrhea can actually be caused for a range of reasons. Stomach bugs are one of the most common causes of diarrhea in young children, and these can be picked up with poor hygiene, by your child touching animals, or even from other children. Diarrhea can also be caused by stress caused by the introduction of potty training. It might be the case that the stress of this new experience is actually upsetting your child's natural rhythms. In some cases, you might need to back off on the potty training until your child is more comfortable with the new process.

Most of the time a tummy virus will go away of its own accord. Do make sure though, that if you have recently travelled outside the country, you consult with a doctor or pediatrician in case it is anything out of the ordinary.

Another possible cause of diarrhea in young children that you should be aware of is a food intolerance or allergy. Children can be allergic to particular foods, including milk or other dairy products as well as nuts, or even wheat-based products. Gluten intolerant or celiac children might experience diarrhea when eating foods containing gluten. This can be tested simply by removing gluten temporarily from the diet, and seeing whether the symptoms cease. If the symptoms re-emerge when the food is reintroduced you should consult with a doctor for formal testing and diagnosis.

There are some things that you can do to treat infant diarrhea, but no magic bullet that will treat all the symptoms. It is important to give your child, sufficient liquids, so that your system can replace fluids lost with the diarrhea, and there are some specialty formulas for use in diarrhea, which can stop the child becoming dehydrated. It might also be wise to not feed your child for a couple of hours following an episode of diarrhea so that the stomach has time to settle. A healthcare professional should be consulted before giving our baby or young toddler any diarrhea medication.